Do other departments use these? How well do they work, if so?

[sparrow803]

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- A modern police squad car has a whole laundry list of on-board electronic devices.

Camera, computer, printer, radar and radio, sirens and lights, flashlight chargers and even weapons locks all run on electricity.

With all those tools dependent on the car battery, officers frequently leave their cars running almost nonstop during a shift for fear of draining their batteries.

Now Cedar Falls police cars will be equipped with yet another gadget. This one would start and stop the engine as needed to keep the battery running.

Havis, the Warminster, Pa., company that makes IdleRight, claims the product monitors the battery status and starts the vehicle when the level dips too low.

In addition, the unit comes with an anti-theft device to prevent a would-be car thief from driving away in a running squad car.

Havis estimates a squad car idling at an emergency for six hours would use as much as four gallons of gas. They claim the same car using the IdleRight system would use than one-quarter gallon of gas.

"We do a lot of idling. If it can reduce wear and tear on an engine, it's worth it," Police Chief Jeff Olson said.

Sometimes in the summer, officers find their squad cars overheat after idling for long periods at accident or crime scenes.

Cedar Falls had looked at a number of different options to deal with the battery and idling issues. For a time, they installed a second battery in the trunk, but that solution didn't work either.

Olson said the idling units have cost $321 per car, an amount that could be made up relatively quickly through gas savings.

So far, just one of the squad cars has had it installed.

Police officer Brian Menke spent a couple days using the car equipped with IdleRight this week and said the technology takes care of itself, he didn't have to think about it at all.

Havis designed the equipment specifically for emergency and construction vehicles that would be on scenes for a long time, usually with warning lights flashing continuously.

[MikeG]

Air condioner and heater run when the car is on. Can't see too many officers thrilled with frozen/boiling car.

It will kill service animals/suspects if it shuts off while dog/person is in back in AZ. Not sure how long suspects are left in car. Probably wouldn't be installed on K9s as they have special things anyway. Anti-theft engine killer would be kinda cool.

Wouldn't be cool if car started itself in the garage to charge the battery. Or while mechanic was working on it (i.e. oil change). I guess I am not a big fan of cars starting themselves without a person telling it to start.

Not a LEO though.

[Safety Steve]

In addition to all that equipment, I also have a Lie Detector in my patrol car that runs off the battery. They are cables that clamp onto the battery and then the suspect, you can also use them to jump start another car!



Be Safe.

[marinepilot]

Sounds like a great idea, but as MikeG said above, my air and / or heat (not that I use that too much) also only run when the car is running. As this is Florida, it gets mighty humid here and air is all but a necessity. I know I wouldn't like to have it my car, but I can see agencies going for this as the price of gas rises astronomically...

[pafindr]

Looks like at the time the article was written there was only one car that had it installed. How long has this been around?

Air condioner and heater run when the car is on. Can't see too many officers thrilled with frozen/boiling car.

It will kill service animals/suspects if it shuts off while dog/person is in back in AZ. Not sure how long suspects are left in car. Probably wouldn't be installed on K9s as they have special things anyway. Anti-theft engine killer would be kinda cool.

Wouldn't be cool if car started itself in the garage to charge the battery. Or while mechanic was working on it (i.e. oil change). I guess I am not a big fan of cars starting themselves without a person telling it to start.

Not a LEO though.

Sounds like a great idea, but as MikeG said above, my air and / or heat (not that I use that too much) also only run when the car is running. As this is Florida, it gets mighty humid here and air is all but a necessity. I know I wouldn't like to have it my car, but I can see agencies going for this as the price of gas rises astronomically...

I was wondering the same thing so I took a look at their FAQ. It says that it works based on the vehicle's flashing lights system. So it would only be operational while the car in turned off and the emergency lights are on. So once you turn the ignition on you won't have those issues.

Q: What is the Idleright Fuel Management System?
A: The Idleright is a purpose-built fuel management system designed to allow emergency vehicles to be parked with warning lights flashing continuously while minimizing engine idle time. The system is activated whenever an Idleright-equipped vehicle is parked, the engine is shut off, and the warning lights are turned on. The warning lights are powered by the vehicle’s battery until the battery voltage falls below a preset threshold, at which time the Idleright module will start the vehicle and idle the engine sufficiently to recharge the battery. Once the battery is recharged, the Idleright will shut down the vehicle engine, and monitor voltage again, ready to restart the engine when needed.

[SANE-A30]

this is interesting ironically I was just thinking about this a few days ago when I seen two units parked and idling I was thinking about their bill for gas..I'm not a LEO of course but I personally think it could be a liability issue only because what if you are responding to a call and the system malfunctions...you can get more gas if you run out but if the battery crashes then you are screwed.. it makes me think of our ventilators at work they used to be on a back up generator but now we have new ones that hold a battery life up to six hours...after that we are doing it manually...just my thoughts...yes the economy is bad gas prices are high but in my opion police/fire/rescue should not have to pay the high prices other people pay ESP while on duty but once again I'm living in my world.....:D

[kazz]

In addition to all that equipment, I also have a Lie Detector in my patrol car that runs off the battery. They are cables that clamp onto the battery and then the suspect, you can also use them to jump start another car!



Be Safe.

I'd love to use them here, but we can't even get Tasers, what hope a set of jumper cables!! =(

We have two batteries, one for the car and one for all the electronics. We lock the doors if the engine is on, carry a 2nd set of keys.

The concept seems to have merit if you are looking to save on fuel.

=]